8s & 7s checker

In English hymnals, meter is written as syllable counts per line — 8.7.8.7 (or “8s & 7s”) means a quatrain of eight, seven, eight, and seven syllables. The same numbers appear as 8.7.8.7.D when the pattern doubles to eight lines, a common shape for longer hymn texts.

Most classic 8s & 7s hymns are trochaic: a falling DUM-da beat, with the seven-syllable lines catalectic (they drop the final weak syllable and end on a stress). Hymnal indexes also list a rarer iambic 8.7.8.7; those texts do not share tunes with the trochaic set, because the stress contour has to match the music.

The form became a staple of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century English hymnody precisely because tune and text could be swapped whenever syllable count and poetic foot agreed — the metrical index is the practical tool for that interchange.

8s & 7s (hymnal 8.7.8.7) cycles eight- and seven-syllable lines. In the classic trochaic form lyriic models, long lines are four full trochees (DUM-da × 4); short lines are catalectic — they truncate after a final strong beat so the line ends on stress.

A four-line stanza therefore reads 8 · 7 · 8 · 7. Hymnals mark 8.7.8.7.D when that quatrain doubles to eight lines; the syllable-and-stress cycle is the same, only longer. Rhyme and tune choice are outside the checker.

When stress-aware checking is on, lyriic compares dictionary stress to the expected falling contour on each line length. Iambic 8.7.8.7 texts exist in some indexes but use a different beat and are not this meter’s target.

A trochee is a two-syllable foot with a strong beat then a light one: DUM-da. Words like “garden,” “poetry,” and “falling” often open on that falling rhythm.

Repeated trochees make trochaic meter—tetrameter (eight syllables) is common in song and children’s verse; longer lines appear in hymns and narrative. English poets often drop or lighten a final weak syllable, so lines may feel truncated compared with a pure foot grid.

With the stress pack loaded, lyriic marks expected strong–weak beats from dictionary stress against that trochaic contour, so you can see where the line matches or drifts.

Classic 8s & 7s hymn meter is trochaic: an eight-syllable line (strong on odd positions 1–7) alternating with a seven-syllable line that truncates after a final strong beat (1, 3, 5, 7). Odd lines end strong; the short line is catalectic.

lyriic checks that 8 / 7 trochaic contour when the stress pack is loaded, filling then truncating the foot grid to each line length.

lyriic does not enforce rhyme schemes, doubled (D) eight-line stanzas, or tune interchange rules from a hymnal’s metrical index.